Social media algorithms are an interesting phenomenon. You need but search the Internet for something, or watch a video, or even talk with friends about something within earshot of your cell phone and your social media timeline is sure be flooded with adverts. Occasionally, this may prove helpful. More often, not so.
One thing that social media algorithms don’t do that well is to discern between what might and might not interest you within certain categories. Because I am regularly searching for and reading theology, I often find my social media algorithms flooded with theology—often poor theology. A couple of years ago, a post by a prosperity teacher found its way onto my Facebook timeline: “I command every spiritual deafness to be healed in your favour today because it is your spiritual right to hear God’s voice. You will hear God’s voice today in the name of Jesus.” (I saved it because I knew it would prove useful at some point!) We could address a number of problems with this post, but one, in particular, is highlighted by our text this morning (Ezekiel 14:1–11).
These verses record an occasion in which a group of leading exiles paid a visit to Ezekiel. They recognised him as a prophet and came to him to hear God’s word. Yahweh, however, was not a divine Magic 8 Ball who would give answers on demand. The elders present had “taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces” (v. 3). The Lord therefore gave Ezekiel a chilling message for them: “Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols” (vv. 4–5).
Ezekiel’s answer to the visiting elders both diagnosed the problem and warned of the consequence. The problem was heart idolatry. The consequence was spiritual deafness. Because the people had set idols in their hearts, they would hear only what they wanted to hear. While they professed to want truth, they really wanted their own biases confirmed. God would give them what they wanted. Because of their heart idolatry, they would become deaf to truth, even though they heard a lot of words.
But we should note that the spiritual deafness of which Yahweh here warned was of the most terrible sort. It was not that they would completely cease to hear from him. Indeed, “I the LORD will answer him myself” (v. 7). The problem is that he would answer in a way that the idolater would hear what he wanted to hear. Paul warned of something similar when he wrote to the Thessalonians: “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11–12). These texts provide a principle, and thereby a warning, for us today.
It is no one’s “spiritual right” to hear God’s voice. It is an act of sheer grace by which God speaks to us. And spiritual deafness usually results from heart idolatry. More often than not, spiritual deafness is not a condition external to ourselves that needs to be “prayed away.” Usually, it is the result of our own heart idolatry, which needs to be repented of. We set up idols in our hearts and God answers us according to those idols.
The solution, of course, is to repent of our idolatries. James tells us to “put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). If we will meekly receive God’s truth, we must first “put away” everything that prevents us from receiving it. If we are not committed to repentance, we may find ourselves deaf to truth as God answers us according to the idols of our heart.
As you meditate on Ezekiel 14:1–11 this morning, ask God to help you identify and repent of the idols of your heart so that you do not find yourself death to the truth of Scripture.